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Can Philly's Bold Experiment in Preventing Foreclosures Work?

With the foreclosure crisis in full swing, Judge C. Darnell Jones issued an order declaring that before any foreclosure goes to sale, a representative for the lender must sit down with the borrower in court. He also postponed all sales of owner-occupied houses scheduled for April or May until July. The order immediately drew national attention, and last week, the experiment began.

City Paper, Philadelphia's original alternative newsweekly, has the largest readership* of any newsweekly in the region. City Paper is available on nearly every street corner in Center City, in select retail and entertainment locations as well as in select neighborhoods,...

About an hour after police disperse kids after a fight some say was racially motivated in a Philadelphia park, a mob of 50 - 75 teens crossed paths with 37-year-old Mark Lavelle. He says one kid swung a gun in his face, as others kicked in his door and beat him with pipe in front of his wife and kids. The next day, another mob--possibly the parents-threatened him. That night, more assaults that end with a cop shooting a man.

Two and a half years after Derrick Cook almost killed Katrina Mansfield, she sits quietly in a courtroom, alone, awaiting what the justice system considers fair trade for what she calls her life sentence. By any reasonable definition, Cook is a violent sexual predator—except, after a drawn-out and botched hearing to determine the status, in the eyes of the law.

While deep-pocketed lobbyists have been making it hard to pass laws that would offer at-risk homeowners more protections, homeowner defender groups have decided to target, and now protest against, the group they believe stand directly in the way of equitable reforms: the banks.

Prisoner John Steckley looks like he might have been mouthing off as he walked out of the visitors' room at Philadelphia's Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, but he appeared to be posing no physical threat to the guard standing at the door. Even so, the corrections officer coldcocked Steckley in the face and then, along with another guard, proceeded to beat him.

Despite the efforts of thousands of pastors, cops, reformed gangsters, concerned parents and politicians, Philadelphia is consistently among the most violent big cities in a country with the highest murder rate of any wealthy nation on earth.

The long-awaited Inquirer.com and PhillyDailyNews.com are online this week, liberating the dailies from the bikini-and-gossip-coated digital stinkpit of Philly.com and locking content behind pay walls, where readers will finally have to pay for it. Sort of.